Three Aussie women nominated for international game award

Microsoft's Women in Gaming awards are a fixture every year at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. This year is the sixth time the awards have been given, and Australians feature prominently, making up three of the fourteen nominees. This is similar to the performance of our independent game studios at another set of GDC awards, as reported here last week.

There are three award categories, and one Australian has been nominated in each. These are as follows:

Rising Star - This is an award that recognises a relatively new arrival in the video game space, but who has made a disproportionately large impression with their talent and passion. Anna Tito is our local nominee, a young programmer and artist who has been part of the Brisbane and Melbourne indie scenes, but is currently working for San Francisco-based KIXEYE.

Innovator Award - This award highlights the technical work being done by an established member of the game creation community. Siobhan Reddy has been nominated for her work at Media Molecule, the UK studio that she co-founded, and which created Little Big Planet and and Tearaway. Before this she worked for many years at Criterion Games, the studio that created the popular Burnout driving series.

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Ambassador Award - Finally, this is an award that recognises the work being done to promote video games in the community, and Melbourne's Giselle Rosman is our nominee. You may remember Rosman being interviewed last year on Screen Play for her organisation of the Melbourne contingent of Global Game Jam, and that is just one of the many things she does. She also runs the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) in Melbourne, and works tirelessly to promote locally-made independent games.

The other nominees in each category indicate just how much of a compliment it is to be recognised, with Feminist Frequency's Anita Sarkeesian, senior animator at Ubisoft Betina Marquis, game producer at Halo 4 creator 343 Industries Olga Zinoveva, and co-creator of Journey at That Game Company Robin Hunicke all given the nod, among many others.

"These awards are an opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of women in gaming by the community that may otherwise go unnoticed," Karen Randhawa, organiser of the event, told Gamasutra. "They provide recognition for individual contributions, but also allow us to celebrate the success as a collective."

I talked to Rosman about her nomination recently, and she spoke in glowing terms about how the effect of these kinds of awards is to raise the profile of female game creators and make them seem just a normal part of the games industry. "This kind of normalisation and acceptance encourages other young creative women to consider games as a channel for creative expression, and perhaps a career path," she said.

The award ceremony is taking place this morning, by Australian time, and I will update this article with further information when the winners are revealed.

Update: Winners have been announced, and Siobhan Reddy has received the Innovator Award. Robin Hunicke, previously of The Game Company where she worked on Journey with Jenova Chen, won the Ambasssador Award. The Rising Star went to Tamara Miner, technical project manager on League of Legends over at Riot Games. Congratulations to all of the winners.

13 comments so far

Who won Microsoft's Men in Gaming awards?

Commenter

Bazz

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 8:31AM

Obvious troll is obvious.

Really, any time someone posts a "but what about the menz?" comment on something highlighting achievements of women, you're not only being a tiresome troll, you're also shining a light on how much of a sexist arsehat you are.

The easy solution is to go "Yay! Australian talent is being noticed" and then stop.

Commenter

Rebecca

Location

At a desk somewhere

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 9:06AM

Rebecca - overreacting to every little thing doesn't help shed a positive light... The heart of your comment is true, but stooping to a lower level to make a point doesn't help anyone.

Bazz - plenty of awards out there that recognise the talents/achievements of people in the gaming industry. Let me know when you find a set of awards out there that isn't male-dominated, and perhaps then I'd say you have an argument.

Commenter

Schmole

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 9:44AM

Don't tone school me Schmole, telling someone that they're doing activism wrong, that they should be nice to get their rebuttal across, or that their anger means that they won't be heard effectively is an attempt to silence someone.

I am allowed to be annoyed and angry with the constant "what about the menz?" questions I see when people write about women.

Commenter

Rebecca

Location

At a desk somewhere

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 9:53AM

Just as you are allowed to feel annoyed and put into words your frustration with "what about the menz?" comments, so too am I allowed to feel annoyed by your comments and put into words my frustrations =)

Commenter

Schmole

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 10:09AM

Sure Schmole if you said that you were annoyed by people responding to trolls that'd be fine, but you said, "Rebecca - overreacting to every little thing doesn't help shed a positive light..." You said I was "overreacting" and that this was a "little thing".

Women are regularly told they're overreacting, and that the things they are overreacting to are little, inconsequential, just a joke, harmless and more.

The language you used is language that is used to silence minorities and stop them complaining about sexism, racism, homophobic, biphobia or trans*phobia.

Also it's not my job to shed a positive light, though I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be shedding a positive light on.

This might be useful reading for you:http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/dissent-unheard-of

Commenter

Rebecca

Location

At a desk somewhere

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 10:19AM

Responding in order: "Overreacting" and "every little thing" are referring to the fact I've been legitimately annoyed in reading your comments in the past as well, rather than just this one in particular. Apologies, should have clarified; this one pushed me to make a comment and contains a culmination of thoughts. Women are often told they're overreacting; no argument. Fwiw, men are also told this, albeit not usually in the same context as the one we are currently arguing about. Not trying to insinuate that sexism is a 'little, inconsequential' thing, a 'joke/harmless' comment if you will. Far from; I just believe there are plenty of other locations on the internet where that using slurs is rife, and it feels out of place to me in the ScreenPlay comments.. one of the few parts of the internet I feel a proper discussion can occur. Re your third paragraph; not saying you're not allowed to complain. I guess I just expected more in terms of the means of communication from the ScreenPlay comments. That said, I'd love to know specifically which part of my language you are referring to. Not by any means trying to silence you - am more commenting on the way you chose to do it in the context of this blog. You're right, I didn't use my language particularly well. I was referring to your own personality here; one's language sheds a light on their personality. Since this is the internet, it's all I have to go off of. Long article; shall read it later - have a meeting at 11 I need to prep for! Apologies for getting slightly personal here too - not my usual tact when discussing things online, but felt it was necessary in this instance.

Commenter

Schmole

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 10:57AM

And a quick follow up comment; I will read your response (am legitimately interested), but will not participate in this discussion further today. Don't want to detract further from the article... + have work. (despite the heated discussion; hope you have a lovely weekend!!)

Commenter

Schmole

Location

Sydney

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 10:58AM

Well that escalated quickly....

Commenter

RocK_M

Location

I want chinese take-away!

Date and time

March 21, 2014, 11:13AM

Just read the article (as I said I would), and I've two comments: One - that article hurt to read. That is, through the examples she listed. Felt literally aghast at the second tweet that was linked. Second - yes, my original comment reads essentially the same to the definition of tone policing the article mentions. That said, the article follows with: "This policing creates an immense social pressure to quietly endure oppressive behavior, for fear of facing greater consequences", and "In being intentionally vague, implicit silencing allows the actor plausible deniability while causing more stress for victims." There was no indication in my post of your needing to endure oppressive/abusive/ignorant behaviour re Bazz's initial comment (rather that your launching into abuse for someone was arguably unnecessary and definitely out-of-place for this blog), and I think my follow up post cleared up the "(un)intentionally vague" portion.

As I feel as if I've been put (read: slammed) against the wall for what I believe to be a perfectly innocent comment, I will conclude all further dealings with my (intentionally antagonising) summary comment: "The easy solution is to go "Obvious troll is obvious" and then stop." ...and then to elaborate, lest I be accused of something I'm not again: a) personal attacks on trolls gives them what they want, and b) calling people by offensive names is not something I expected to see on this blog, especially for a one-off trollish comment; I (perhaps misguidedly?) expected more of ScreenPlay's readers/those who comment.

And with my involvement in this thread now concluded, it's time to go play some more Runner2 in a quest for all achievements!